55
Total 126 20.3968 3.58236 11.00 30.00
CQ Anatolian 90 77.6444 8.97977 54.00 99.00
Science 18 73.8889 9.22203 59.00 95.00
Religious 6 68.8333 3.48807 64.00 72.00
Other 12 73.3333 8.92732 59.00 88.00
Total 126 76.2778 9.06301 54.00 99.00
56 4.3.1.Pre-service ELT teachers’ general perception of CQ. The first research question was asked in order to elicit pre-service ELT teachers’ general perception of CQ. The interview question was “In your view, what is culture?”. According to the results of the content analysis, 12 codes emerged from the interview results. The most commonly observed ones in the data were
“way of living (n=6)”, “tradition/customs (n=8)”, “habits (n=3)”, “ideas and opinions (n=2)”.
The other emerged codes were manners, foods, experiences, values, totems, taboos, rules, materials and spiritual matters. These three codes ‘way of living, manners, foods’ were then categorized into a single subcategory, which is lifestyles. Moreover, traditions/customs,
experiences, habits and values were subcategorized into traditions & customs. Totems, taboos, rules, material & spiritual matters, ideas and opinions were also subcategorized as beliefs.
Finally, aforementioned three subcategories were collected under the main theme ‘‘perceptions of culture’’ (n=13).
4.3.2.Pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their metacognitive CQ. The second interview question was about the pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their metacognitive CQ. The second and fourth interview questions aimed to investigate the interviewees’ perceptions of their metacognitive CQ, which were respectively: “What should we need for successful
intercultural communication? Why?”; “Do you adopt or modify your cultural assumptions during the intercultural communication? If so how? What are these assumptions?”.
When it comes to the pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their metacognitive CQ, many interviewees expressed that openness to differences (n=9) and tolerance (n=9) were the most significant factors in intercultural communication. Some other participants also regarded respect (n=5) highly important in communication across cultures.
57 When the interviewees’ replies were coded, a number of codes related to metacognitive CQ were generated. To illustrate, these codes were: openness to differences (n=9), tolerance (n=9), respect (n=5), having less anxiety and less interaction (n=1), empathy (n=1), sincerity (n=1), transparency (n=1); knowledge of different cultures (n=1), knowledge of different languages (n=1); prejudice (n=2), having low level of adaptation (n=1), and the fear of change (n=1). Furthermore, these codes were put into three different subcategories, which were attitudes, knowledge, and internal factors. The subcategory attitudes included openness to differences, tolerance, respect, having less anxiety and less interaction, empathy, sincerity, and transparency.
In addition, knowledge of different cultures and knowledge of different languages were subcategorized as knowledge. Finally, an internal factor subcategory was also generated according to the nature of codes which were prejudice, low level of adaptation, and the fear of change. As a result, attitudes, knowledge, and internal factors were congregated under the main theme perception of metacognitive CQ.
4.3.3.Pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their cognitive CQ. The next research questions were about eliciting the pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their cognitive CQ. To this end, interview questions 3 and 5 were asked. The third interview question was: “Can you describe yourself as an inter-culturally competent user? Why or why not?”, and the fifth interview question was “What do you think you need to know about different cultures you encounter? Why? Do you already know all these?”.
When the participants’ replies were coded, it was seen that the majority of the participants agreed that knowing about cultural values is one of the most important factors in order to
describe oneself as inter-culturally competent user. Several codes emerged here, which were open-mindedness (n=1), no prejudice (n=1), no cultural comparison (n=1), cultural values (n=6), literature (n=1); represent Turkish culture (n=1), interest in other cultures (n=1), observation
58 (n=1); pragmatics (n=1), good command of English (n=1), prejudiced habits (n=1), individual mistakes (n=1), lack of cultural knowledge (n=2); education system (n=1), closed society (n=1), less exposure to target culture (n=1), religion (n=3), way of life (n=2).
Many participants in the interviews expressed that they regarded themselves as interculturally competent language users, while some other participants were less likely to consider themselves as competent intercultural communicators.
The subcategories were generated according to the similarities of the content and
presented the nature of the codes. Firstly, five different codes, which were open-mindedness; no prejudice, no cultural comparison, cultural values literature, were subcategorized under “having intercultural knowledge”. Secondly, the code of representing Turkish culture was put under the subcategory “having native culture representation”.
Another subcategory was also found, and there were 2 codes under it: pragmatics and good command of English. Having good command of English and having pragmatic knowledge about the target cultures were also subcategorized as “having language competence”. Besides, having interest in other cultures and observation were also put under a subcategory which was labelled as being inquisitive.
Some participants also expressed their sentiments about being less competent intercultural communicators. For example, the interviewees explained that having prejudiced habits or
individual mistakes could be the reasons of their intercultural incompetence. In addition, some participants also expressed the educational systems, the traits of the society they have been living in, less exposure to the target cultures were likely to be the culprits for their limited competence in cross-cultural communication. According to the obtained codes, having prejudiced habits, individual mistakes and the lack of cultural knowledge were grouped into a subcategory as
59 internal factors, whereas, education systems, closed society, less exposure to target culture, religion, and way of life were listed under external factors.
As a result, the aforementioned 6 sub-categories shaped the main theme as the perception of cognitive CQ (n=13). Even though the majority of the participants expressed considerably positive perceptions about their cognitive CQ, there might also be some internal and external factors which may pull the participants back from intercultural communication.
4.3.4.Pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their motivational CQ. In order to examine the pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their motivational CQ, question 9, 10, and 11 were asked in the semi structured interviews. These questions were respectively, “How do you feel about interacting with people from different cultures? Why?”, “How would you feel if you were supposed to live in a dissimilar culture? Why/not? What would you do to deal with this dissimilarity?”, “Can you easily adjust yourself to a new cultural surrounding? If yes, then how do you do this?”.
After analyzing the transcribed interviews, codes were formed. Almost all the participants stated that ability to adapt (n=13) was important. The emerged codes here were learning cultures (n=8), enthusiasm (n=2); ability to adopt (n=13), openness to new cultures (n=5), mutual
understanding (n=3), sympathy (n=1), overseas travelling (n=1), homesickness(n=1), stress(n=1), stereotypes(n=1), the influence of native culture(n=1), and time (n=1).
Learning cultures and enthusiasm were collected under the theme named “willingness to learn cultures”. Ability to adopt, openness to new cultures were subcategorized to “having abilities to adopt”. Moreover, mutual understanding, sympathy and overseas travelling were collected under the theme “having previous experience”. Finally, intrinsic and extrinsic factors were also categorized based on the codes which were homesickness, stress, stereotypes, native
60 culture influence, and time. To illustrate, homesickness, stress, and stereotypes were
subcategorized as intrinsic factors, while native culture influences and time were under the subcategory as extrinsic factors. As a result, willingness to learn cultures, having abilities to adopt, having previous experiences, intrinsic and extrinsic factors were all collected under one main theme as perception of motivational CQ (n=13).
4.3.5.Pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their behavioral CQ. With regard to the pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their behavioral CQ, question 12 was asked to the participants during the interview. The interview question was “Do you change how you speak in cross-cultural interaction (in terms of body language, accent, tones etc.)? Why or why not? If so, in what ways?”.
When the respondents’ answers were analyzed, it was observed that the majority of the participants reported to be changing how they spoke in intercultural interaction in order to have mutual understanding (n=3), to have better cultural reflection (n=2), and most commonly by using imitation (n=12). There was also an emerging factor such as language personality (n=1).
To illustrate, one of the participants believed that s/he changed the way he/she speaks when s/he switched the language spoken in intercultural communication. The participant also stated that s/he used less body language when s/he spoke English, whereas s/he used body language more frequently when he/she spoke Spanish. Furthermore, s/he reported to be using body language frequently when Turkish language is spoken.
When these aforementioned codes were subcategorized, imitation and mutual
understanding were collected under the theme called “environmental influences”, and language personality was subcategorized as “an emerging factor”. Furthermore, the sub-themes such as the environmental influence and the emerging factor were categorized as the perception of behavioral CQ.
61 4.3.6.Pre-service ELT teachers’ perception of their CQ and some variables. With the intent of examining the participants’ perceptions of speaking multi-languages, being a dual citizen and graduating from state or private high schools, interview questions 6,7,8 were asked to the interviewees. The interview question 6 was “Do you speak another language? Do you feel this gives you an insight into the culture of that language? In what way?”. Interview question 7 was “Do you think speaking multi-languages can make you more culturally intelligent? In what way?”. Interview question 8 was “Do you think studying in a private or state school, being a dual citizen can improve one’s cultural intelligence? How?”.
The analysis of the interviewees’ responses to the interview questions 6 and 7 revealed that 6 participants spoke other languages such as German, Spanish, Portuguese, Roman…etc. The participants who spoke other languages expressed that speaking other languages was likely to contribute to learning the form of expressions (n=1) in foreign languages, adaptation (n=1), understanding the target cultures (n=1), learning the ways of expressing thoughts and emotions (n=2), and showing empathy (n=1). Even though half of the interviewees did not speak other languages, they still believed that it was important to understand cultures (n=3), learn styles of speaking (n=1), learn the structure of languages (n=1). Moreover, one respondent commented that watching foreign TV series (n=1) may be helpful for understanding different cultures.
For instance, one interviewee noted:
“Bence etkiler. Farklı dillere ve yaşam biçimlerine aşina olmak ufkumuzun gelişmesini sağlayarak, hoşgörüyü ve empatıyı artırır. Sonuç olarak farklı kültürlere dair bilgi sahibi oluruz ve gelişiriz.”
62
“I think it affects. Being familiar with different languages and lifestyles broaden my horizon and improve my tolerance and empathy. As a result, we will have knowledge about different cultures, and we develop.”
There was a participant who commented:
“Kesinlikle etkiler. Dil kültürün temelidir. Çünkü dil olmazsa aktarım olmaz, kümülatif bilgi olmazsa kültürden de bahsetmek mümkün değildir. Dolayısıyla farklı diller size farklı kültürlerin kapılarını açar ve bu şahane olmasının yanısıra kültürel zekamızı olumlu etkileyen bir şeydir.”
“It definitely affects. Language is the foundation of culture. Because there is no cultural communication without languages, it is not possible to talk about culture without cumulative information. Therefore, different languages open the door of different cultures to you and this is something which positively affects our cultural intelligence and it is amazing.”
Interview question 8 addressed the participants’ perceptions about their CQ in terms of attending state or private high schools and being a dual citizen. A variety of perspectives were expressed by the participants, and then these perspectives were coded and categorized. For instance, as revealed in the data, going to private high schools may provide students with opportunities to interact easily with foreign teachers (n=1), having advanced school facilities (n=1), having more frequent overseas exchange programs (n=2), the smaller number of students in a classroom (n=1). However, some participants also expressed their views that the teachers’
roles (n=1), socio-economic conditions (n=1) of schools, and teachers’ duty on developing students’ outlook to life (n=1) may also differ in state and private high schools.
For example, one of the interviewees reported the following about CQ and the variable attending state or private high schools:
“…Özel lisede okumanın bir avantaji, yabancı uyruklu ögretmenlerin ders veriyor olması 63
kültürel algıyı olumlu anlamda değiştirdiğini düşünüyorum…”
“…the advantages of studing at a private high school is that you have foreign/native teachers, which is able to change the cultural perception positively…”
There was also one participant who stated:
“Özel lise ve devlet lisesine gelince, okulun imkanları kısıtlıysa elbette zordur ama öğretmenin gayreti hepsinin üstündedir.”
“As well for a state and private high school, of course, if the school has limited opportunities, it could be difficult, however, teachers’ effort is the most important factor to improve cultural intelligence.”
Most of the participants showed positive attitude towards the idea that dual citizenship improves CQ. That is to say student teachers in the study believe that being a dual citizen could contribute to the advancement of CQ. To illustrate, some participants commented that being a dual citizen may contribute to the pre-service ELT teachers’ openness to interaction (n=1), having various perspectives (n=2), having the ability to compare cultures (n=1), and less obstruction in travelling (n=1).
Commenting on being dual citizens, one respondent stated:
“Evet, çifte vatandaş birey iki kültürü de bilir ve karşılaştırma fırsatı bulur.”
“Indeed, an individual with dual citizenship status know both 2 cultures and they have chances to compare these two cultures.”
One of the interviewees also reported:
64
“Çifte vatandaş olmak katkı sağlar. Çifte vatandaşlar farklı iki kültürde yaşamış inanalardır ve kültürlere sahiptirler. Bu onlara farklı bakış açıları sağlar ve farklı ortamlarda nasıl etkin olabileceklerini bilirler.”
“Of course, being a dual citizen contributes to cultural intelligence. Dual citizens are people who live in 2 different cultures and who have 2 cultures. This provides them with
opportunities to have different perspectives and they are conscious of how to behave in different cultural situations.”